On Monday, Trump appeared to accept Putin's denial of Russian interference in the USA 2016 presidential election at their joint press conference in Helsinki, sparking uproar in Washington.

The report comes the same week the president, standing next to his Russian counterpart in Helsinki, rejected a similar assessment from USA intelligence agencies and said "we're all to blame" for poor diplomatic relations between the two countries.

As his rare retraction - Trump is not known to own up mistakes - became the new narrative, the president added a new wrinkle in an unscripted interaction with reporters.

Mr Putin did not name names, but spoke of U.S. politicians who put their "narrow party interests" above the best interests of the United States and were powerful enough to be able to foist their questionable "stories" on millions of Americans. Susan Collins of ME said of Trump's one-word response.

USA intelligence officials have said Russia's efforts to undermine elections are continuing and now target the November 6 congressional races.

But after the briefing, Trump issued a statement spreading the blame among "Russia, China and other countries, outside groups and countries".

President Trump is considering allowing prosecutors from the Kremlin to question Michael McFaul, a former USA ambassador, and others, Sarah Sanders said on Wednesday.

In a possible dig at Mr Trump's unpredictable presidency, Mr Putin vaunted Russia's "consistent, responsible, independent foreign policy". "The president will work with his team and we'll let you know if there is an announcement on that front", Sanders said. "But what I can tell you is that the overall assertions that have come out of the Russian government are absolutely absurd. Is he open to having U.S. officials questioned by Russian Federation?" asked the New York Times White House reporter Maggie Haberman asked.

"We see that there are forces in the United States that are prepared to casually sacrifice Russian-U.S. relations, to sacrifice them for their ambitions in an internal political battle in the United States".

"I felt like I'd spent a career defending the principles and the freedoms of this country", said Axe, 44, who lives in Annapolis, Maryland. "Just like I consider myself to be responsible for things that happen in this country", he said. McFaul was U.S. ambassador to Russian Federation when President Barack Obama signed the Magnitsky Act into law, imposing harsh sanctions that Browder and McFaul supported.

They are angry, however, at proposals by USA congressmen to question Mr Trump's translator about what the men discussed privately. "Putin's acknowledgement that his counterpart [U.S. President Donald Trump] does not recognize the annexation of Crimea is also important", she wrote on Facebook. "What we intend to do is make sure they don't get away with it again and also to help our allies". "And I think it'll be to our advantage, just like with North Korea".

Brennan, who served as Central Intelligence Agency director from 2013 to 2017, issued a scathing tweet after Trump's Helsinki summit.

Schumer also urged the Senate to take up legislation to boost security for US elections and to revive a measure passed earlier by the Judiciary Committee to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference.